


Small, Cold Comforts

by completelyhopeless



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Gen, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-23
Updated: 2014-11-23
Packaged: 2018-02-26 17:33:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2660513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/completelyhopeless/pseuds/completelyhopeless
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Neither of them has a good coping mechanism. In that, they're not alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Small, Cold Comforts

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sapphire2309](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphire2309/gifts).



> I knew when I saw the [picture prompt of "Things are easier since I stopped dreaming,"](http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/563058.html?thread=79241330#t79241330) I wanted to do it. My mind went to Natasha first, but then I cycled back to May because she used to be different, and Natasha lost the ability to dream when she was still a child. May didn't.
> 
> I finally got up the guts to do a piece with May and Coulson, and their friendship was what made me like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. at first. I still like them now.

* * *

Paperwork might have been boring. Red tape might have been a trap in of itself, a tangled web not even the bureaucrats knew they were creating, but it had the appearance of safe. Sometimes that illusion was all a person needed. It used to be enough.

“Things are easier,” May said. “Since I stopped dreaming.”

“Liar,” Coulson said, and her eyes half-closed as she tensed, unable to deny his words and not understanding why she'd allowed him to hear hers in the first place. “It's never easier.”

She folded her arms over her chest. So much for his new outlook after New York. "Nightmares aren't the same as dreams. I never said I didn't have nightmares."

"You gave up on dreaming."

She shrugged. "It's easier."

"No, it isn't."

She could have been angry, could have challenged him, but he was just as raw as she was, and she still saw it, even when she wasn't looking at him. It was impossible to miss. “For you or for me?”

“For both of us.” 

She nodded. There was a comfort in not being alone. It was a cold one, but it was still a comfort.


End file.
